Open Communication
by Aurora West
Summary: If you had told Loki twenty-four hours ago that he'd be standing on a ship that he'd stolen from the Grandmaster of Sakaar, after fighting the sister he'd never known he'd had, evacuating his people from their home, and then destroying Asgard—well, he'd have asked what was in it for him. Loki and Thor begin to rebuild. Missing scene from Thor: Ragnarok.


Author's note: This is a missing scene fic from _Ragnarok _and my first foray into writing fanfiction for the MCU.

* * *

"If you were here, I might even give you a hug."

With a flick of his wrist, Thor tossed the bottle stopper he was holding. Loki raised his hand and caught it, smiling. "I'm here."

An answering smile crept across Thor's face and he didn't hesitate—not the way Loki would have; he always hesitated. But Thor was Thor, confident even when he wasn't, never cautious, utterly sure of himself, and over the past day, Loki had come to appreciate the differences between them in a way that he maybe hadn't since they'd been children. Maybe in a way that he hadn't ever.

And if Loki was going to be honest with himself—not his greatest strength—he didn't hesitate either. Not this time. It took only a few steps for them to meet, a few steps after years of an impassible chasm between them, and then the two of them were hugging tightly. One of Thor's hands gripped his shoulder and Loki realized that the smile on his face was sincere and—embarrassingly—not going anywhere. His fingers clenched around the bottle stopper in his hand as he embraced his brother and tried to tell himself that the hard ache behind his sternum _wasn't _the nascent urge to cry for their broken family. For everything they'd lost and this one thing that they'd gained.

If you had told Loki twenty-four hours ago that he'd be standing on a ship that he'd stolen from the Grandmaster of Sakaar with the help of a collection of gladiators-turned-revolutionaries, after fighting the sister he'd never known he'd had, evacuating his people from their home, and then destroying Asgard—well, he'd have asked what was in it for him. That was still an open question, but for the moment, it seemed less important than it ever had.

Thor slapped him on the shoulder and pulled back. "So," he said. "What made you change your mind?"

Loki raised an eyebrow. "Well, chaos and lawlessness is only fun when you're the one causing most of it, so." With a shrug, he added, "A place like Sakaar was only going to get boring in the end."

"Too much of a good thing, brother?" Thor asked.

"More that it's difficult to really shine in a place where everything is _complete _bedlam," Loki said lazily.

There was a knowing look on Thor's face, the kind of older-brother smirk that Loki had been living with his whole life. As though Thor knew better, when Loki had always been the perceptive one. The one who understood people. That had never been Thor. But Thor had always thought he'd understood Loki, and the thing that Loki had come to finally accept in the past several hours was that…oh, he was probably right. A little right. At least, more than Loki cared to admit out loud.

"For a moment, I thought you might be getting sentimental," Thor said, still smirking.

Chuckling and looking down at the ground, Loki glanced back up and said, "When have I ever had any need for sentiment?" He held the bottle stopper up to his eyes, tossed it once and caught it, then hesitated. A tinge of wistfulness made its way into his smile. "You know, brother, I hate to admit it, but it's been sort of fun. Having you around." He waved a hand. "Fighting side by side, as you so touchingly put it."

At this, Thor rolled his eyes. "Loki—"

But Loki held up a hand, and that actually made Thor stop talking. In the silence, Loki's resolve to say what he'd been about to say, sudden and unbidden, shriveled just as quickly. This wasn't who he was. Speaking from the heart? That was for Asgardians. And he wasn't Asgardian, was he? Except even at his worst, he'd never been able to reject his home. For as much as he'd thought Asgard was trying to reject him, all he'd really wanted was to belong there. Adopted or no, it _was_ his home. He'd never known any other. He was Loki of Asgard. The truth was hard to get at, especially his own truth, but he knew then that he'd _always_ been Loki of Asgard, despite trying his best to push it away.

Fine, then. He'd already said it once today. Open communication wasn't their family's forte. And it _wasn't_. The thing was, from where he was standing, he could see with crystal clarity the breathtaking devastation that had wrought on them all.

He looked down at his hands, fiddling with the bottle stopper. Thor just waited. Uncharacteristic. But then, his brother had changed when Loki wasn't looking. And he'd spent a lot of time not looking, so perhaps that wasn't all that surprising.

Drawing in a slow breath through his nose, Loki exhaled, then began haltingly, "I just wanted to be your equal." The only other time they'd tried to have this conversation, it had ended with Loki falling to what he'd assumed would be his death. This probably couldn't go any worse than that.

"You were," Thor said.

Loki smiled without any happiness, but without the bitterness that he normally would have. Growth and change. There, it wasn't so hard. "Was I? In your eyes, Thor, was I?"

With a sigh, Thor put his hand to the back of Loki's neck, though he didn't meet Loki's eyes for a moment, staring off towards the window. Stars rushed silently by outside while the dim glow of the lights set into the walls cast everything with a softness that belied everything they'd been through. Not just in the past few weeks—few days, from Thor's point of view—but for years. Finally, he looked back. "We probably both could have done a better job."

At that, Loki laughed. "Diplomatic."

"You disagree?"

There was a pause. Then Loki said, "No."

The two of them stood there for a minute, Thor's hand still on Loki's neck. Even though Loki knew what he wanted to say, the weight of so many years and the long habit of burying his hurt made it impossible. The words refused to come, refused to even form. For someone who was supposed to have a silver tongue, it wasn't the best look. All that was there was a nebulous haze of feelings and half thought-out speeches. Nothing articulate. Nothing that he could actually _say_.

But he had to. He had to say _something_. Licking his lips, he began, "Do you remember what I said on Svartalheim?"

"Which part?" Thor said. "You had plenty to say."

"Well." Loki raised an eyebrow. "I'd just spent a year in the dungeons. I hadn't exactly had much company, had I?" When Thor scoffed, Loki said more quietly, "I told you I was sorry. That I was a fool."

"Ah, right," Thor said. "You mean when you were faking your death."

His brother didn't move his hand, though. Or, Loki supposed it was worth noting, tighten his grip to a stranglehold. Smiling slightly, Loki said, "What I _said_ was true. I meant it." Surprise flashed across Thor's face, and Loki added, "I know you think me incapable of sincerity, brother, but if you think about it, it's the most surprising thing I can do, isn't it?"

After a second, Thor shook his head in exasperation, then pulled Loki into another hug. This one took him by surprise. A flood of regret filled him, that something this simple had eluded them for as long as it had. They'd been inseparable when they were younger. The Princes of Asgard. The Odinsons. A thousand years of an unbreakable bond. The cracks had always been there, though, despite Loki's best attempts to patch over them. It had just taken the truth about who he was to widen them so that everything shattered. Like water freezing in the cracks of a stone foundation, ice expanding until it brought the whole structure down.

But as Thor drew back, leaving his hand on Loki's shoulder, it seemed clear that the foundations of their relationship had never actually been destroyed. And that made it more durable than their home. More durable, actually, than most of what Loki had encountered in his nearly eleven hundred years.

His hand still on Loki's shoulder, Thor said, "I still don't trust you."

"I wouldn't really expect anything less," Loki replied, a smile twitching at his mouth. Tilting his head, he added, "Then again, you've never been much of a liar."

With a grimace, Thor said, "You must be rubbing off on me."

"Give it a little longer and you might actually get good at it," Loki said.

The two of them looked at each other, the hum of the ship's engine seeming suddenly loud in the room. Thor looked uncertain before saying, "Does that mean you're staying?"

Loki's brow furrowed. Only if he was asked. Only if he was wanted. "I hadn't thought about it," he said, shrugging and looking away, and knowing the hesitation would give away the lie.

Thor squeezed his shoulder. "I think you should."

Looking back, Loki smiled slightly. "I suppose of the two of us, I'm the only one who has any actual experience _ruling _Asgard." Before Thor could interject, which he was opening his mouth to do, Loki bowed his head. "So if you need any advice, brother, I'm happy to offer it."

Thor dropped his hand from Loki's shoulder. "You're giving up the throne without a fight?"

"I didn't think _you'd _think I deserved it," Loki said.

"I don't."

"Well, then."

Thor crossed his arms over his chest. "I'm just not sure I do either."

Loki pinned the bottle stopper in his hand between his thumb and forefinger and spun it, remaining quiet for a moment. Then he said, "Father always wanted you to be king." Good lord, how long had it been since he'd called Odin 'Father?' It felt like a weight lifted though, like an anchor he could finally cast off. It wasn't that the secrets and the lies didn't matter. They just…didn't matter as much as this, in front of him, here on _The Statesmen_ with a bunch of gladiators, the remnants of his people, and his brother. The only family he had left in the entire universe. It was funny, he thought suddenly, that he'd never stopped calling Thor 'brother.' Did that count for something? He thought it should. Even if it was just somewhere in his own soul, he thought it should.

"Hm." Thor studied him. "Father wasn't always right."

With a short laugh, Loki said, "_Really._ Tell me more."

Thor smiled, looking like he was doing it despite himself, then turned back to the drinks on the table. Pouring a second tumbler, he turned and handed it to Loki, who put the bottle stopper down. Rubbing a hand through his cropped hair, Thor said, "And I'm surprised to hear you honoring anything he wanted, anyway."

Loki swirled his drink, watching the alcohol whirlpool and form tiny currents in the glass. Pressing his lips together for a moment, he said, "I had a lot of time to think on Sakaar before you got there." When he didn't go on, and Thor raised his eyebrows expectantly, Loki shrugged and said, "Take that how you will."

With a chuckle, Thor shook his head and said, "And here I thought we were trying for more open communication."

"Were we?"

"Loki," Thor sighed. Something about it brought back that pain behind his sternum. With another sigh, Thor said, "You're really going to make me do it, aren't you?" Loki looked at him sharply. Was that an intentional echo of what Thor had said on Asgard before he'd unmasked Loki's Odin glamor? There was a smirk on his brother's face, so Loki would take that as a yes.

"Stay," Thor said. "Fight by my side. If I have to be king, I want you here to help me." He set his drink down, pausing for a long, long moment. Then he breathed out a small laugh, not quite mirthless, not quite resigned, but somewhere in the region of acceptance. "You're my brother and I love you." Then, pointing a finger, he added, "And I tried really hard not to for awhile, so you should take that as the compliment it is."

Loki swallowed and watched Thor. Ah. So, _this_ was what was in it for him. It wasn't about ambition or furthering his own goals or getting something out of it. Turned out, he'd found the one thing that he'd never known how to get, the thing that he'd been failing to get for most of this life. _Always so perceptive about everyone but yourself_, his mother had said to him the day she died. He missed her with an ache that had dulled over time but would never go away. He missed his father, too, and that was more of a surprise. There was a lesson here, a lesson to accept what he had when he had it. Who he was. Who he'd been—and who he could be. A lesson to not push away love when it came your way.

The silence had gone on long enough that Thor was beginning to look uncomfortable. Finally, Loki smiled. "I love you too," he said simply. "Of course I'll stay."

Open communication. Who would have thought? Turned out it worked. Maybe they should have tried this years ago.

Thor's face broke into a grin and Loki raised his glass. When they'd been young, Loki would have done anything for his older brother. He'd never expected to feel that way again, but here they were, full circle. Except this time, Thor would be the king that Asgard needed, and Loki was happy to see him take the throne. He raised an eyebrow, smiling, and motioned towards the door. "Finish your drink. Everyone's waiting."

Thor laughed and did so, picking up his glass and throwing back what was left. Glancing at himself in the mirror, then back to Loki, he asked with a tinge of trepidation in his voice, "Wait. Before we go…how do I look?"

His smile growing crooked, Loki said, "Like a king."

With a chuckle, Thor put an arm around Loki's shoulders. "Suppose I'll try to live up to it."

"You will," Loki said. He downed the rest of his own drink, vanished the glass with a flick of his fingers, then slapped Thor on the back. "Come on, brother." With a smirk, he added, "Your kingdom awaits."

Together, the Odinsons left the room.


End file.
